Natural IgM antibodies, the ignored weapons in tumour immunity

During its lifetime each multi-cellular organism is permanently exposed to infectious agents and transformed cells. Without an early recognition and a rapid elimination system, there would be no development and no life. The innate or natural immunity, seems to be more important for the detection of "foreign" cells and particles than has been thought. Even if not every transformed cell has the ability and potency for malignant behaviour, the important question is not, why malignant cells arise, but instead, why malignancy occurs so infrequently. We have shown in a recent paper, by using the human hybridoma technology, that tumour immunity is not induced by malignant cells, but instead the result of innate immunity and that natural IgM antibodies play an important role in immunosurveillance mechanisms against transformed cells in humans (Brändlein et al., 2003b). In this review typical features of natural IgM antibodies are discussed and tumour-specific reactivities and different apoptotic functions on epithelial cancer cells are illustrated.